Registry Complaint Form | ICANN: "This form allows Internet users to submit a complaint to ICANN regarding registry services. The information provided to ICANN via the complaint forms may be forwarded to the contracted party. To remain anonymous, please request in the comment box."

See alsoDomain Mondo's ICANN pagefor a listing of governmental authorities--California AG,IRS,FTC, US DOJ, FBI, SEC--having jurisdiction over ICANN, its directors, officers, staff, or its Registry operators and Registrars. "ICANN may be a monopoly, but ICANN is not above the law."

"Registering"* a domain name [*note that technically, and legally, no one can "buy" a domain name, but can only become the domain name registrant subject to a continuing obligation to pay annual registration renewal fees.]:

Pricing: if you are interested in comparing registrar pricing by TLD, one source is domcomp.com

Change Your Name | PaulGraham.com: "If you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.com, you should probably change your name. The reason is not just that people can't find you. For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness. Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain suggests you're a marginal company. Whereas (as Stripe shows) having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what you do. Even good founders can be in denial about this ... 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do..." - Paul Graham, VC and co-founder of the Y Combinator seed capital firm

RFC1591: "... The registration of a domain name does not have any Trademark status. It is up to the requestor [registrant] to be sure he is not violating anyone else's Trademark..."

Overreaching: Priority of Rights to Domain Names | IPLegalCorner.com: "Both the UDRP and ACPA are dedicated to evicting squatters, but not all holders of domain names corresponding to trademarks are squatters. Priority of right or legitimate interest is a significant factor in determining whether there is an actionable claim for cybersquatting under either regime."

Noteworthy Decisions April 2015 | IPLegalCorner.com: "Aspect Capital Limited v. Fluder (aka Pierre Fluder), D2015-0475 (WIPO April 14, 2015); Riverbed Technology, Inc. v. Nicholas Bonner, FA1503001608365 (Nat. Arb. Forum April 17, 2015). In determining whether a domain name is identical or confusingly similar to trademark the dot can be ignored. In Aspect, Respondent coupled “aspect” with the new TLD “capital” to form <aspect.capital>. In Riverbed, Respondent coupled “riverbed” with the new TLD “technology” to form <riverbed.technology>."

Trademarks: searchbefore registering a domain name to avoid trademark conflicts

Avoid infringing an existing trademark--it is against the law (cybersquatting), you will lose your entire investment in the domain name, and you could be liable for damages--consult a Trademark attorney

Q: How will new gTLDs affect search? Is Google changing the search algorithm to favor these TLDs? [No.] How important are they really in search? [new gTLDs are not favored in search]A: Overall, our systems treat new gTLDs like other gTLDs (like .com & .org). Keywords in a TLD do not give any advantage or disadvantage in search.

Q: Will a .BRAND TLD [domain name] be given any more or less weight than a .COM [domain name]?A: No. Those TLDs will be treated the same as a other gTLDs. They will require the same geotargeting settings and configuration, and they won’t have more weight or influence in the way we crawl, index, or rank URLs.

Q: How are the new region or city TLDs (like .london or .bayern) handled?A: Even if they look region-specific, we will treat them as gTLDs. This is consistent with our handling of regional TLDs like .eu and .asia. There may be exceptions at some point down the line, as we see how they're used in practice. See our help center for more information on multi-regional and multilingual sites, and set geotargeting in Search Console where relevant.

Q: What about real ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) : will Google favor ccTLDs (like .uk, .ae, etc.) as a local domain for people searching in those countries?A: By default, most ccTLDs (with exceptions) result in Google using these to geotarget the website; it tells us that the website is probably more relevant in the appropriate country. Again, see our help center for more information on multi-regional and multilingual sites.

Q: Will Google support my SEO efforts to move my domain from .com to a new TLD? How do I move my website without losing any search ranking or history?A: We have extensive site move documentation in our Help Center. We treat these moves the same as any other site move. That said, domain changes can take time to be processed for search (and outside of search, users expect email addresses to remain valid over a longer period of time), so it's generally best to choose a domain that will fit your long-term needs.

Mike Berkens | TheDomains.com: ...Thoughts On The New gTLD Program & Some Predictions for 2015 (excerpt, emphasis added):"... The choice consumers have isn’t to register a new .COM or a new gTLD [domain name]. For one, there are around 75,000-100,000 .Com domain names that drop everyday of the year These domain were registered by someone else and some are as old as 20 years. Everyday there are around 10,000 .com domain names that have been registered for 10 years that drop. There are millions of .com domain names for sale on the Aftermarket which continue to sell from the hundreds of dollars into the seven figures and those are just the public sales. When you’re talking about spending hundreds, thousands and even five figures a year in registration fees on a new gTLD, then the option of buying a registered .com on the aftermarket becomes much more attractive to the consumer...." (read more at the link above)

How to Launch Your Own Online Store With Shopify | lifehacker.com: "When you sign up for an account with Shopify, the system will ask you to name your store and it will then assign you a site address. Choose a store named “WeSellStuff,” for example, and your site address will be “wesellstuff.myshopify.com.” While you’re always welcome to keep this site address as the home of your store on the ‘net, you’re more than likely going to want to change it to something more catchy, easy to remember, and not focused on Shopify. Fortunately, setting up a personal [custom] domain name is fairly routine."